The organization of this section is in fun. If you take offense at taking apart religious doctrine for analysis, ask yourself how perfectly you follow their rules. I do respect others’ beliefs and their role in history to get us where we are today, but in light of new knowledge, some ideas have certainly become obsolete and dangerous. This is a great way to roughly point out which ones. It's also a great way to talk about the major philosophical beliefs in history. This section is certainly filled with gross oversimplifications of many arguments, but that's ok because a) this is a website for the general public and not a two-million-word academic dissertation on all philosophers in history, and b) this is surely filled with gross oversimplifications of my ideas as well. This gets the conversation going though and sticks to the rigorous MECE (mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive) frameworks I want to build. Information on the philosophers and their beliefs is largely taken from Wikipedia where further sources are cited properly.

Medieval Philosophy (450-1600 CE)

Medieval philosophies were mostly concerned with proving the existence of God. The medieval worldview was rational, ordered, and synthetic. It survived until the acids of war, plague, poverty, and social discord began to eat away its underlying presupposition – that the world rested on the being of God. This is probably what kept medieval times known as the Dark Ages – a reliance on God to explain things instead of science. Thus holding humanity back for a thousand years of stagnation and condemning millions to lives of suffering in the name of mysticism.

Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE), also known as St. Augustine, was a Latin philosopher and theologian from Roman Africa. He is considered the first medieval man and the last classical man and his writings were very influential in the development of Western Christianity.

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Needs to AdaptAugustine believed that God exists outside of time in the "eternal present," that time only exists within the created universe because only in space is time discernible through motion and change. Even the agnostic philosopher Bertrand Russell was impressed by this. He wrote, "a very admirable relativistic theory of time. ... It contains a better and clearer statement than Kant’s of the subjective theory of time - a theory which, since Kant, has been widely accepted among philosophers.” Physics states that time is woven into the fabric of space within the universe. We have found no evidence of god within this universe, which is fine with Augustine. But we have also found no evidence of god existing outside of the universe either. We should abandon belief in that existence altogether.

Augustine took the view that the Biblical text should not be interpreted literally if it contradicts what we know from science and our God-given reason. With no evidence for any gods, our reason is highly unlikely to be a gift from one. Reason would seem to arise naturally during evolution as a solution to the need to understand and control our emotions and actions for the better survival of the species over the long term. But Augustine was right that scientifically discovered knowledge should trump mystical revelation.

Gone ExtinctOne of Augustine’s most famous quotes comes from his prayer in Confessions - “make me chaste...but not yet.” Augustine held that a major result of original sin was disobedience of the flesh to the spirit as a punishment of their disobedience to God. The view that not only the human soul, but also the senses, were influenced by the fall of Adam and Eve, was prevalent in Augustine's time. In fact, short-term-focused urges of the flesh are simply remnants from our evolutionary history. They worked in the super-competitive environments of the past, but not as well as the long-term focused behaviors that we later learned and taught ourselves through cultural reinforcement. Unfortunately, evolution is blind and we are left holding our vestigial emotions. Sometimes literally.

Augustine taught that redemption was not in this world. When the Western Roman Empire was starting to disintegrate, Augustine developed the concept of the Catholic Church as a spiritual City of God (in a book of the same name), distinct from the material Earthly City. While the long-term view is a good one, using a time and a place that does not exist as an incentive for good behavior is a house built on sand that has many bad side effects and inevitably will collapse.

Muhammad (570-632 CE) was the founder of the religion of Islam. Discontented with life in Mecca, he retreated to a cave in the surrounding mountains for meditation and reflection. According to Islamic beliefs it was here, at age 40, in the month of Ramadan, where he received his first revelation from God. The revelations, which Muhammad reported receiving until his death, form the verses of the Quran, regarded by Muslims as the “Word of God” and around which the religion is based. Muslims consider him the restorer of an uncorrupted original monotheistic faith of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets.

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Gone ExtinctThe Quran presents five pillars as a framework for worship and a sign of commitment to the faith. They are (1) the shahada (creed professing monotheism and accepting Muhammad as God’s messenger), (2) daily prayers, (3) fasting during Ramadan, (4) almsgiving, and (5) the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime. Almsgiving is of course useful for a cooperative species trying to maintain diversity and coherence. In a universe without a god though, forcing the acceptance of one man’s unproven beliefs is harmful to society. Plus, once divine revelation is accepted, who is to say any one revelation is better than another. This creates the opportunity for perpetual uncompromising conflict. Prayers are a drag on efficiency and encourage faith where effort would be better. Intentionally weakening the body through fasting helps one to learn to deal with bodily pain, but spending one month a year in this weakened state is taking it too far. Requiring your followers to visit your birthplace is extremely vain and clearly intended just to boost your religion and the livelihood of your local followers (though they will gladly encourage the practice, giving a self-reinforcing circularity to the rule).

In Shia Islam, there are ten practices that Shia Muslims must perform, called the Ancillaries of the Faith. (1) Salat (ritual prayer five times a day); (2) fasting during Ramadan; (3) almsgiving; (4) an annual taxation of one-fifth of all gain paid to Imams or poor descendants of Muhammad’s Ahl al-Bayt family; (5) pilgrimage to Mecca; (6) Jihad - a religious war with those who are unbelievers in the mission of Muhammad; (7) do the necessary good in life; (8) forbid what is evil; (9) expressing love towards Muhammad's family, Ahl al-Bayt; (10) disassociation with those who oppose God and those who caused harm to Muhammad or his family. Allowing for the usefulness of almsgiving, doing good, and forbidding evil, the rest of the ancillaries are solely focused on the perpetuation of the religion but are in fact very damaging to the human species. Spending hours every day in prayer is monumentally wasteful. Fasting one month a year is too much time spent in a weakened state. Giving hard-earned money to the charlatans who created and run this organization is perpetuating fraud. Declaring war on unbelievers creates an unbridgeable rift in humanity that is a direct threat to the survival of the species.

In line with the prohibition against creating images of sentient living beings, which is particularly strictly observed with respect to God and the Prophet, Islamic religious art is focused on the word. Images are an important way to record and transmit knowledge. No form of learning must ever be banned. Ignorant species go extinct.

The Sharia (literally "the path leading to the watering place") is Islamic law formed by traditional Islamic scholarship, which most Muslim groups adhere to. In Islam, Sharia is the expression of the divine will, and constitutes a system of duties that are incumbent upon a Muslim by virtue of his religious belief. No laws or governments should ever be based on divine will or people who purport to know a divine will. No such thing has ever been proven to exist and acceptance of even one divine will by any small group opens humanity up to competing divine wills and unbridgeable gaps.

Avicenna (980-1037 CE) was a Persian polymath who wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects. His corpus includes writing on philosophy, astronomy, alchemy, geology, psychology, Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics, as well as poetry. He is regarded as the most famous and influential polymath of the Islamic Golden Age in which the translations of Greco-Roman, Persian, and Indian texts were studied extensively.

SurvivesHis 14-volume Canon of Medicine was a standard medical text in Europe and the Islamic world until the 18th century. The book is known for its description of contagious diseases and sexually transmitted diseases, quarantine to limit the spread of infectious diseases, and testing of medicines. Some nice contributions to the long lineage of medical science.

Needs to AdaptAvicenna inquired into the question of being (metaphysics), in which he distinguished between essence and existence. He argued that the fact of existence cannot be inferred from or accounted for by the essence of existing things, and that form and matter by themselves cannot interact and originate the movement of the universe or the progressive actualization of existing things. Existence must, therefore, be due to an agent-cause that necessitates, imparts, gives, or adds existence to an essence. It is still not known what caused the origin of the universe or why matter exists at all. However, it is well known how form and matter interacted to create the progressive actualization of existing things - this is evolution. The infinite regression of the agent-cause argument (who created the first agent?) leads only to the same questions. It does not lead to an all-seeing god.

Gone ExtinctAvicenna wrote his famous "Floating Man" thought experiment to demonstrate human self-awareness and the substantiality and immateriality of the soul. He told readers to imagine themselves created all at once while suspended in the air, isolated from all sensations, which includes no sensory contact with even their own bodies. He argued that, in this scenario, one would still have self-consciousness. The first knowledge of the flying person would be “I am,” affirming his or her essence. That essence could not be the body, obviously, as the flying person has no sensation. Avicenna thus concluded that the idea of the self is not logically dependent on any physical thing, and that the soul should not be seen in relative terms. The body is unnecessary; the soul is an immaterial substance. But bodies cannot just appear all at once suspended in air and isolated from all sensations. The argument is false right from the start. Our bodies are grounded in reality and there are no souls.

Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109 CE) was the founder of scholasticism and is famous in the West as the originator of the ontological argument for the existence of God.

SurvivesNot so much a philosophy or a theology as a method of learning, scholasticism places a strong emphasis on dialectical reasoning to extend knowledge by inference, and to resolve contradictions. Scholastic thought is also known for rigorous conceptual analysis and the careful drawing of distinctions. It originated as an outgrowth of, and a departure from, Christian monastic schools. Anselm may not have used it properly or well, but this rebirth of logic eventually led to the Reformation, scientific method, and the downfall of mystic revelation.

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Gone ExtinctAnselm reasoned that if "that than which nothing greater can be conceived" existed only in the intellect, it would not be "that than which nothing greater can be conceived," since it can be thought to exist in reality, which is greater. It follows, according to Anselm, that "that than which nothing greater can be conceived" must exist in reality. This was criticized on the grounds that humans cannot pass from intellect to reality. There are many things that humans can conceive of that do not exist in reality. A perfect circle for example.

Anselm also stated, “Nor do I seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe that I may understand. For this, too, I believe, that, unless I first believe, I shall not understand.” He held that faith precedes reason, but that reason can expand upon faith. Thus formally accepting false premises and confirmation bias into the institution of religion.

SurvivesIn ontology, Averroes rejects the view advanced by Avicenna that existence is merely accidental. Avicenna held that “essence is ontologically prior to existence.” The accidental, i.e. attributes that are not essential, are additional contingent characteristics. A hat may be red, it may be old, and (for Avicenna) it may exist. Averroes, following Aristotle, holds that individual existing substances are primary. One may separate them mentally; however, ontologically speaking, existence and essence are one. Yes. More existentialism in history.

Averroes’ most important original philosophical work was The Incoherence of Incoherence, in which he defended Aristotelian philosophy. Other works were the Fasl al-Maqal, which argued for the legality of philosophical investigation under Islamic law. Averroes, following Plato, accepted the principle of women’s equality. He thought they should be educated and allowed to serve in the military; the best among them might be tomorrow’s philosophers or rulers. Averroes had no discernible influence on Islamic philosophic thought until modern times though. What a shame for such a large swath of humanity.

Needs to AdaptArab philosophers did not have access to Aristotle's Politics. Averroes commented on Plato's Republic, arguing that the state there described was the same as the original constitution of the Arabs. Averroes, following Plato’s paternalistic model, advances an authoritarian ideal. Absolute monarchy led by a philosopher-king creates a virtuous society. This requires extensive use of coercion, although persuasion is preferred and possible if the young are properly raised. Kings, even philosopher-kings, are an untenable inconsistency in a cooperative society. Representative government is required to strengthen social bonds since that is philosophically consistent with the ideal society’s principles. Force may be required to ensure that cheaters do not win, and cooperation increases when punishment from the group is allowed, but no one should be coerced to do the right thing. Raising the young properly would go a long way toward creating this kind of society.

Gone ExtinctAccording to Averroes, there is no conflict between religion and philosophy; they are different ways of reaching the same truth. He believed in the eternity of the universe. He also held that the soul is divided into two parts, one individual and one divine; while the individual soul is not eternal, all humans at the basic level share one and the same divine soul. Averroes has two kinds of Knowledge of Truth. The first being his knowledge of truth of religion being based in faith and thus could not be tested, nor did it require training to understand. The second knowledge of truth is philosophy, which was reserved for an elite few who had the intellectual capacity to undertake its study. The beliefs he held show just how incompatible religion is with philosophy. The universe is not eternal - we can now roughly date it. There are no souls separate from existence. And no one should take religious views blindly. Philosophy, evolutionary philosophy anyway, finds justification for laws and morality that are useful for everyone, not just an intellectual elite.

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 CE) was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism. The works for which he is best known are the Summa Theologica and the Summa Contra Gentiles. He is considered the Church's greatest theologian and philosopher.

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Needs to AdaptAquinas was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology. Natural theology is a branch of theology based on reason and ordinary experience. Thus it is distinguished from revealed theology (or revealed religion), which is based on scripture and religious experiences of various kinds. At least this continued the crack in religious leadership that allowed the light of the scientific method to eventually shine through.

Aquinas defined the four cardinal virtues as prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude. There are, however, three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity. These are supernatural and are distinct from other virtues in their object, namely, God. The four cardinal virtues do fold into the six categories of virtue enumerated by positive psychology. Hope and charity are contained in two other categories. Faith, if defined as belief in positivity, is a virtue. The religious definition of faith though - belief without proof - is a detriment to life and therefore a vice. None of these virtues are supernatural. All are evolved behaviors that aid in the continued life of the species.

Gone ExtinctThomas believed that the existence of God is neither obvious nor unprovable. In the Summa Theologica, he considered in great detail five reasons for the existence of God, which he termed the Quinque Viaa or Five Ways. (1) The argument of the unmoved mover. Infinite regression questions leave us with the same question, not god as an answer. We still don’t know how the universe began. (2) The argument of the first cause. This is the same infinite regression that leads us back to the question of what happened before the Big Bang. (3) The argument from contingency. Even if something has always existed, there is nothing to say that it is a god who designed the universe and watches over us. (4) The argument from degree. Actually, there is no evidence of varying degrees of perfection. There is only change and adaptation to the environment in order to remain alive. (5) The teleological argument. This precursor of intelligent design ignores the ignorance of life and the blindness of evolution. For those that cannot adapt, the universe is a changing place with no mercy. The search for a proof for the existence of god continues without success.

In Thomas's thought, the goal of human existence is union and eternal fellowship with God. Specifically, this goal is achieved through the beatific vision, an event in which a person experiences perfect, unending happiness by seeing the very essence of God. This vision, which occurs after death, is a gift from God given to those who have experienced salvation and redemption through Christ while living on earth. How sad that the purpose of life was thought to be death. The meaning of life is to live! With further definitions, religion can allow for long-term thinking and living a good life, but the false promises lead too often to wasted sacrifice, missed opportunities, and enabling self-destructive behavior.

Aquinas believed that truth is known through reason (natural revelation) and faith (supernatural revelation). Supernatural revelation (faith) and natural revelation (reason) are complementary rather than contradictory in nature, for they pertain to the same unity: truth. When supernatural revelations contradict each other, they cannot be said to contain any elements of truth. By definition, no supernatural revelation can ever be proven to be better than any other supernatural revelation. Reason is still the only path to truth.

Aquinas never considered himself a philosopher, and criticized philosophers, whom he saw as pagans, for always "falling short of the true and proper wisdom to be found in Christian revelation.” This philosopher is happy to exclude Aquinas from our ranks. Christian revelation falls well short of the wisdom and truth discovered by philosophy and science.

Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536 CE) was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, early proponent of religious toleration, and theologian. He has been called the Prince of the Humanists, and the crowning glory of the Christian humanists.

SurvivesErasmus is most famous for “In Praise of Folly” in which the personification of Folly praises foolish activities of the day, including superstitious religious practices, uncritical theories held by traditional scientists, the vanity of Church leaders, folk beliefs in ghosts and goblins, Christian rituals involving prayers to the saints, and the sale of “indulgence certificates” by the Catholic church to raise money for lavish building projects in return for less time in purgatory. It’s always good to call for an end to wasteful practices that do harm to the species.

Needs to AdaptErasmus marks the point where the “new learning” had arrived at the parting of the ways. He tried to free the methods of scholarship from the rigidity and formalism of medieval traditions. His life seems full of fatal contradictions, but it was his conviction that what was needed to regenerate Europe was sound learning, applied frankly and fearlessly to the administration of public affairs in Church and State. All great, except the applications of this learning would eventually undermine the very existence of a church at all.

When Erasmus was charged with “laying the egg that Luther hatched,” he half admitted the charge but said he had expected quite another bird. Unfortunately he showed cowardice or a lack of purpose by writing that a man may properly have two opinions on religious subjects - one for himself and his intimate friends, and another for the public. Truth should never be hidden from the public. Erasmus probably would not have felt the need to hide his beliefs in later ages, but at least he was another thin wedge cracking the hegemony of the church.

Gone ExtinctAfter his death his writings were placed on the Index of Prohibited Books by the Roman Catholic Church. It’s not his writings that have gone extinct, but the idea that a book should ever be banned by a religion. What a shame this Catholic practice occurred for over 400 years from 1559 to 1966.

Martin Luther (1483-1546 CE) was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation.

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Needs to AdaptLuther kicked off the Protestant reformation with the publication of his “Ninety Five Thesis” on October 31, 1517, which attacked the church’s sale of indulgences. He was plagued by uncertainty and doubt about his own salvation until he found solace in Paul’s epistle to the Romans discussing God’s graciousness to the individual – this allowed him to rebel against the Catholic Church and its indulgences. He felt indulgences placed dependence on traveling salesmen instead of God. Luther was not a proponent of reason and science, but his forceful revolt enabled Christianity to be opened up to the evolutionary force of competition, which ultimately diminished its powers due to its weak intellectual basis.

Gone ExtinctLuther famously wrote that “reason is the devil’s whore.” He held though, that philosophy and reason are a great aid to society when used properly and a threat only when used improperly. The proper role of philosophy is organizational and as an aid in governance. Reason can be an aid to faith in that it helps to clarify and organize, but it is always second-order discourse; it is faith seeking understanding and never the reverse. Reason is the devil’s whore precisely because it asks the wrong questions and looks in the wrong direction for answers. Revelation is the only proper place for theology to begin, reason must always take a back seat. Reason discovers the truth. Truth must never take a back seat to revelation, faith, or theology. Truth is required for survival. By calling for an abandonment of reason and risking the survival of the species for the sake of its beliefs and its power, religion is the true evil and the true whore selling its soul for its own survival. No more - go extinct already!

Francis Bacon (1561-1626 CE) was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author, and pioneer of the scientific method. Bacon has been called the creator of empiricism, and remains extremely influential through his works, especially as a philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution. The third US president Thomas Jefferson wrote; "Bacon, Locke, and Newton. I consider them as the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception, and as having laid the foundation of those superstructures which have been raised in the Physical and Moral sciences."

SurvivesScientific Method - a method or procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses. It bears repeating just how important this is to the discovery of knowledge we need to survive.

Bacon did not propose an actual philosophy, but rather a method of developing philosophy. He argued that although philosophy at the time used the deductive syllogism to interpret nature, the philosopher should instead proceed through inductive reasoning from fact to axiom to law. This is the spirit by which Evolutionary Philosophy hopes to develop its beliefs.

Needs to AdaptThe end of induction is the discovery of forms, the ways in which natural phenomena occur, the causes from which they proceed. The continuation of science has uncovered that perfect forms do not lie behind existence. Diversity of form, adaptability of existence - these are what allow natural phenomena to survive.

Bacon said that men should confine the sense within the limits of duty in respect to things divine, while not falling in the opposite error, which would be to think that inquisition of nature is forbidden by divine law. Another admonition was concerning the ends of science: that mankind should seek knowledge not for pleasure, contention, superiority over others, profit, fame, or power, but for the benefit and use of life, and that they perfect and govern it in charity. Life is the end goal. Senses must be confined within the limits of what is good for life. This is not divine. It is not from a god. It is from reality and the world we live in. It is profane and it is good.

In 1623 Bacon expressed his aspirations and ideals in New Atlantis. Released in 1627, this was his creation of an ideal land where "generosity and enlightenment, dignity and splendor, piety and public spirit" were the commonly held qualities of the inhabitants of Bensalem. Taking the definition of piety as dutiful to oneself and to society (and not to religion), then this utopian vision does indeed describe a cooperative species built to survive for the long term.

Gone Extinct

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642 CE) was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. Galileo has been called the father of modern observational astronomy, the father of modern physics, the father of science, and the father of modern science.

SurvivesStephen Hawking says, "Galileo, perhaps more than any other single person, was responsible for the birth of modern science.” He aided the separation of science from both philosophy and religion - a major development in human thought. For his views on heliocentrism, he was tried by the Inquisition, found "vehemently suspect of heresy," forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. Just a brief note to honor the debt we owe this man for his imprisonment and determination in the face of the church.